


It’s Far From Over: Christmas Joy

by charming_angel



Series: It's Far From Over [4]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Eureka, Stargate - All Series, Supernatural, Veronica Mars (TV), Warehouse 13
Genre: Christmas, Crossover, F/M, Fantasy, Gen, Science Fiction, gen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-26
Updated: 2012-12-26
Packaged: 2017-11-22 12:12:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/609695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charming_angel/pseuds/charming_angel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first Christmas in my 'It's Far From Over Series'.</p><p>Dean is in a good mood and decides to surprise Veronica & Sam for Christmas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Christmas Preparations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  **Title :** It’s Far From Over: Christmas Joy  
>  **Rating :** PG  
>  **Genre :** crossover, sci-fi, fantasy, friendship, romance, het (but part 1 is mainly gen with references to het couples)  
>  **Fandoms :** Animorphs, Army Wives, **BTVS** , Doctor Who, **Eureka** , Hawaii Five-0, Legend of the Seeker, NCIS LA, Primeval, **SG-1** , **SGA** , **SGU** , **Supernatural** , Torchwood, Veronica Mars & **Warehouse 13** (bold: have characters/locations actually appear in the ficlet not just referenced to)  
>  **Characters :** Bobby Singer, **Claudia Donovan** , **Dean Winchester** , Douglas Fargo, Faith Lehane, **Jack Carter** , Jack O'Neill, Steven Caldwell, Willow Rosenberg, Zoe Carter, references to others  
>  **Pairings :** none, but references to Veronica/Dean, Willow/Sam, Allison/Jack C., Claudia/Eli, Faith/Riley  
>  **Word count :** ~ 4053  
>  **Summary :** Dean is happy for the first time in what feels like forever to him. To cheer Veronica up during the holidays and because he ows Sam an actual Happy Christmas he decides to organize them a Christmas surprise. Bobby can't believe Dean could actually be in a Christmas mood and wonders if he is possessed.  
>  **Spoiler Warnings :** all of Stargate, Eureka & BTVS to be safe, Supernatural up to the end of season 6, Warehouse 13 Christmas episodes, nothing specific for the other fandoms  
>  **Other Warnings :** I’m German and my English isn’t and probably never will be perfect. I hope I don’t make too many mistakes. Feel free to point out errors so I can learn and improve.  
>  **Author Notes :** I know the main fic of my 'It's Far From Over' Series still isn't finished, but I was in a Christmas mood and got some Christmas related ideas stuck in my head. Since it wouldn't be fun to write & post them in the summer for example I decided to take a little detour and write/post something that happens after the main story. So, this is set about half a year after the events of 'It's Far From Over'.  
> I wanted to write a Veronica/Dean ficlet as a thank you to my beta , but when I started writing it turned into much more. So, for now 2 ficlets are finished, 1 is the Veronica/Dean one, the other is set directly before that one. I got ideas for more, but we'll see if I find time to actually write it before the Christmas spirit leaves me and I prefer to get back to the main story.
> 
> Thank you to my friend for betaing this. Any remaining mistakes are entirely my own. ;-)

**Atlantis:**

“Ready,” Dean Winchester said into his radio after having taken a careful look around the gate room to make sure that no one who wasn’t supposed to be there had managed to sneak in at the last minute. This was supposed to be a surprise after all. A second later a ray of blueish light illuminated the middle of the gate room. When it faded it revealed two people and a Christmas tree. Dean grinned. The tree was huge, just like he had instructed.

“Seriously? How are we going to move that thing? It’s way too big! And it stands directly in front of the Stargate,” Jack Carter called.

“It’s perfect,” Dean objected while rushing down the stairs from the control room.

“No, it’s not,” Bobby grumbled. “I’m with him.” He gestured at Jack. “That tree is a nuisance to move. If I hadn’t been with a bunch of slayers and a witch when getting it, we never would have managed to move it at all! Why does it have to be so big, and why do you care about Christmas all of a sudden?” he asked. Dean had hated Christmas for as long as Bobby could remember, or at the very least he hadn’t cared about it. Now all of a sudden he had called, invited him and Willow for Christmas and told them to bring a tree, but not just any tree. He even specified a minimum size!

“Bobby,” Dean said, smiling at the older hunter, or better _watcher_. Bobby had officially joined the watchers council a few months ago. “Nice to see you, too. And I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about,” he added with a mischievous smile. 

Of course Dean knew what Bobby meant. He had never cared about Christmas, had only kind of celebrated it if Sam insisted. It simply hadn’t been his thing. Why celebrate Christmas and pretend that everything was fine when it clearly wasn’t. Something had always been after them, the apocalypse had been around the corner or one of them had been in hell, _literally_. There had never been a time when he felt like being cheerful and indulging in a ridiculous holiday. Until now. Everything had changed for Dean about six months ago, when he, Sam, Bobby and Castiel ended up in an alternate reality because Cas had messed up while opening purgatory. At first coming here had felt like one more awful blow of fate. They hadn’t just come here by accident, they were stuck here. Yes, they were still searching for a way home, but finding the right universe was proving to be difficult. No wonder, since there apparently was an infinite number of realities, according to Rodney McKay. 

Dean knew that he should feel bad that they hadn’t found a way home, but truthfully, he didn’t. He knew that this wasn’t his world, and that things back home were probably awful. They were needed in their own reality, but Dean simply couldn’t find it in him to actually want to go back. What did he have to go back to? More demons and supernatural creatures that wanted him dead as much as he wanted them dead? Crowley, the king of hell, who had to be pissed about his ruined plans to open purgatory and would no doubt blame him, Sam and Bobby? Raphael, who wanted to start the apocalypse again? A world in which he and Sam were on the top of the FBI’s most wanted list? A world filled with graves of people he loved? Or maybe the vast number of people he missed and who missed him… which equalled _zero_. 

The sad truth was that there was nothing left in his own universe that meant anything to Dean. He wasn’t sure if he would go back if he had the chance, but he wouldn't start thinking about it before he actually had to. For now he had decided to simply enjoy the new life that he had been given. At first he hadn’t even appreciated it. Staying with other people and, more importantly, trusting them? Not an option for Dean Winchester. He trusted no one but Sam and Bobby, and even that hadn’t always turned out so well. He wasn’t even going to think about Castiel, who had betrayed him and worked with the king of hell to open purgatory. No matter if Castiel was sorry now and tried to make amends, it still had left Dean with even more trust issues. In the beginning he had only agreed to stay in Atlantis because the Stargate Program employed scientists who knew something about travel between realities, and because they asked for help against the escaped souls from purgatory, who were roaming this world now. Dean couldn’t even remember when he had actually started to like being here, or what the main reason was. Maybe it was the lack of impending doom? It wasn’t like things weren’t dangerous here. They were still fighting supernatural creatures, and aliens on top of that. Apocalypses did happen here, too, and even in the plural. But things rarely seemed as hopeless as they used to back home. Maybe that was because they were no longer alone. They had help now, which was another possible reason for why he liked it here. Despite all of his beliefs and distrust Dean had found friends and team mates that he started to trust over the past months. The people of this world had taken them in and accepted them in a way that his own people back home never had. He wasn’t a hunted serial killer here, but a trusted and valued fighter of the supernatural and member of the Stargate Program. For the first time he was actually seen for who he really was by a large group of people. It might be stupid to care about something like that, but it made him feel good. And it wasn’t just that they liked him, he did like these people, too. Even though the Stargate Program consisted mostly of military personnel and crazily smart people, Dean actually liked most of them. O’Neill was funny, in a weird kind of way… both of them actually, the one in charge of the whole SGP, and his kid clone who they had put in command of Dean’s off world team, and who had, despite Dean’s firm negative opinion of him, proven to be capable and even a good friend. Sheppard, Mitchell and Lorne were fun to hang around with, too. He liked their sense of humor. He also especially liked Faith, Rachel, Vala, Roxy, Martha, Harkness – as long as he didn’t flirt with him – McGarrett, that whiny former Detective Danny, the hot aliens Cara and Kahlan, that crazy Warehouse chick Claudia, Becker and Stephen, and weirdly enough even the grumpy and highly annoying scientist Rodney McKay. Not that he’d ever admit that out loud. 

Mostly though, Dean did like Veronica, who he had a suspicion was his main reason for enjoying his new life so much. The former FBI agent could be impossible at times, but she was also smart, funny, sassy, inventive and incredibly hot. He had no idea why she liked him, but he wasn’t going to bring it up in case it would make her realize that she was way too good for him. Yeah, he was pretty sure that Veronica was the main reason for his new found happiness in life, and she was also the main reason why he had decided to bring some Christmas joy to Atlantis. She had told him that she used to love Christmas… when she could spend it at home with her dad. Dean couldn’t give her back her father of course, since he was in another reality, but he was determined to make her enjoy their first Christmas together anyway. Besides that, Sam deserved a happy Christmas, too. Dean knew that his brother had wanted that his whole life, but had never really gotten it, partly because Dean had resisted even trying to make it a nice Christmas. He was going to make up for that now. There would be a tree, plenty of other Christmas decorations, Christmas cookies, which he had already ordered from Vincent, lots of gifts and everything else that Dean had previously called cheesy.

“Earth to Dean,” a voice said. Dean blinked and looked at Bobby, pushing away his thoughts to concentrate on his friend.

“You okay, Dean?” Bobby asked, sounding worried.

“Perfect,” Dean answered with a wide smile.

“Who are you, and what have you done with Dean Winchester?”

“I’ve been wondering the same thing,” Jack stated. “He’s been unusually… cheerful. I think there’s something wrong with him.”

“What?” Dean asked, amused.

“Could be possessed,” Bobby mumbled.

“Or replaced by a robot,” Jack offered. “Maybe even a replicator, a new grown body… or he could be a Goa’uld.”

“I’m not a robot, snake or anything else!” Dean exclaimed, feeling insulted. “Nor am I posse…” He didn’t get to finish the last word as Bobby threw liquid into his face, probably holy water. Dean spit out the water and glared at his friend. “I am NOT possessed, Bobby.” 

“Christo.”

Dean sighed and wiped the water out of his eyes. “Satisfied?”

Bobby shrugged. “I still think there’s something wrong with you.”

“We should probably have him tested,” Jack stated.

“Nonsense,” Willow said joining them. “Dean is just in a festive mood.”

“Dean is never in a festive mood,” Bobby objected.

“Maybe he never was before, but he is now,” Willow insisted.

“Thank you,” Dean said to Willow before glaring at Bobby. Why was it that Willow believed him more than Bobby? Was she more trusting? Did she believe it was possible for him to change, or did she simply know him and his past aversion of Christmas less?

“He’s neither AI nor possessed by anything, including a Goa’uld. Trust me, I’d be able to tell,” Willow assured them.

Or maybe she was just the most powerful witch Dean had ever encountered, and the only one he even trusted remotely. Of course she had some witchy way of knowing whether he was himself.

“You sure?” Bobby asked.

“Geez, Bobby, thanks. I’m not that bad!” Dean exclaimed. Bobby simply looked at him as if to ask ‘have you met yourself?’

“Ignore him,” Willow said before stepping forward and hugging Dean, which hardly surprised him anymore. Willow was big on hugging. “Bobby’s still as distrustful as ever. And thank you for inviting us.”

“Yeah, he doesn’t seem to have changed at all,” Dean agreed after Willow let go of him again. “And you are very welcome.” He was glad that Willow had agreed to come. Sam might not actually admit it, but Dean was sure that his brother was head over heels in love with the witch. At first Dean hadn’t been too pleased about that, especially after finding out about Willow’s dark past, but Willow had saved each of their lives a number of times, and only went completely crazy after losing someone she loved. He'd give her the benefit of the doubt… for now, especially since she made Sam so happy.

“Unlike you,” Bobby said. “What happened to you, Dean?”

“Veronica of course,” Willow stated matter of factly.

Dean stared at her. Was he that obvious? Or had Veronica talked to Willow about him? No matter how teh redhead knew about him and Veronica, did she have to tell everyone? For some reason he preferred to keep their… could it be called a relationship yet?.... to himself. It kind of felt like he might jinx it if he actually admitted to himself and the world that he, Dean Winchester, was actually in a real relationship.

“How about we…” He didn’t get to finish the sentence because a commotion started behind them. Turning around Dean saw the tree - his perfect tree – falling. Nooo! Luckily before the tree would have hit the ground it stopped mid-fall and froze in place. Then it magically went back to a standing position. Dean sighed in relief and turned to Willow. “Thanks, you’re definitely my favorite witch.”

“That’s because you don’t know any other witches you like,” Willow replied with a smirk.

Dean shrugged, then turned to the room at large. “Don’t just stand there, secure the tree!” He grinned when several people rushed forward. He guessed they were so used to following orders, they didn't even care who gave them. Maybe military personnel weren’t that bad after all.

“We need to move it out of the way of the Stargate first,” Jack called.

“How we gonna do that?” Bobby grumbled. “We only got one slayer,” he added gesturing at Faith. He doubted she could carry it all alone.

“Maybe I…” Willow started, but was interrupted by Dean.

“I got this,” he said, then turned to the control room and called: “Put me through to the Daedalus.” Once he got a confirmation sign he tapped his radio. “Daedalus, we need you to move the tree.”

 _“The what?”_ came the answer over the radio. _“And who am I talking to?”_

“Dean Winchester, we talked earlier, making the arrangements to beam in Bobby Singer and Willow Rosenberg, remember?”

_“Right, and now you want us to move a tree?”_

“Yes, the Christmas tree…”

_“You want us to move a Christmas tree?”_

“Yes. It’s too big and heavy to be moved easily. We need you to beam it…” He didn’t get to finish the sentence because a new voice interrupted him.

_“This is Colonel Caldwell. You do realize that you are talking to a military ship of the United States government, not a moving service for Christmas trees, right? We have more important things to do than beam things around for you all day.”_

Dean narrowed his eyes. Apparently this Colonel was not as laid back as O’Neill, Sheppard, Mitchell and Carter.

“I’m sure you do have very important things to do,” he answered, trying not to sound irritated. “But since you beamed Bobby, Willow and the Christmas tree into the gate room, which means, that YOU put the tree directly in front of the Stargate, I think it would be only fair that you move it out of the way as well. We wouldn’t want returning teams to crash into it upon arrival, would we?”

Dean heard a sigh and some chuckling in the background, then Caldwell muttered: _“Fine. Major Marks just volunteered to deal with this.”_

\----- -----

About fifteen minutes later they finally had the Christmas tree in the right location.

“Perfect,” Dean said with a grin.

“You sure? We could always try the other side of the Stargate again,” Bobby muttered.

“You think that looked better?” Dean asked.

Bobby groaned. “Willow, are you _sure_ he is not possessed?”

Willow laughed. “The tree looks great where it is. Let’s start decorating it before your girlfriend shows up unexpectedly.”

“Roxy promised me to keep Veronica occupied,” Dean said while trying to ignore the girlfriend comment.

“Still, let’s get this done. Your girlfriend isn’t the only one we’re doing this for, and sooner or later one of them will escape our plans to keep them away and show up here,” Jack stated. He didn’t want that to happen. Allison loved Christmas and usually went nuts decorating the whole house. This year he wanted her to get a surprise – one which hopefully wouldn’t turn them into cartoons again - and had decided to help Dean with his plans to decorate the gate room.

Dean narrowed his eyes. “Veronica’s not my girlfriend. Not really anyway.”

Jack raised an eyebrow at that. “If that’s what you’re telling yourself.” He had seen the two of them together. They reminded him of himself and Allison. “Trust me, the way you look at her, she’s definitely more than a little fling.”

“Besides, you’d be crazy to let her get away,” Willow said. 

Before Dean had a chance to reply to that he heard a crashing noise and turned around. Two people were carrying several boxes into the gate room and had dropped one of them.

“Oops, could someone please get that?” Claudia Donovan exclaimed from behind one pile of boxes.

“What’s all this?” Dean asked while Jack picked up the box Claudia had dropped.

Claudia put down her boxes and grinned widely.

“This, Mister hunter, will bring you the best Christmas ever,” she promised. “Christmas Warehouse-Style. Trust me, you’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I’m counting on it,” Zoe Carter said putting down the other pile of boxes.

“You, my new bff, will not be disappointed,” Claudia stated and grinned at Zoe. Since Zoe had shown up two days ago, to spend the holidays with her family, and had run into Claudia upon arrival, the two of them had been inseparable. She intended to make her new friend's Christmas the most special one she had ever had, and she wanted to surprise Eli as well. He hadn’t had a proper Christmas for years after all, stuck on that crappy space ship Destiny. He totally deserved something extra special.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Jack quickly said. If artifacts were involved, this Christmas was bound to become as crazy as his last ones. He really wasn’t in the mood for any of that.

“This is all perfectly safe,” Claudia assured him. “Tested over the past Christmases in the Warehouse, by myself. Plus, I left the dangerous stuff in the Isle of Noel, especially Rudolph’s Nose and Philip Van Doren Sterne’s Upholstry Brush.”

“Why, what do those do?” asked Zoe curiously.

“Rudolph’s Nose turns everything more ‘Christmas-y’, but in a bad way. Sparks fly, inanimate objects turn alive, dogs get turned into reindeers, that kind of stuff. The brush… well, it erases everyone who touches it from existence. Basically if you touch it, you’ve never even been born,” Claudia explained.

Jack groaned. This was exactly the crazy stuff he'd hoped to leave behind when Eureka closed.

“Maybe we should just go with normal Christmas decorations,” Dean suggested. Those Warehouse things were the kind of magical items that usually came back to bite you in the ass. 

“Nonsense,” Claudia said. “I told you, I only brought what’s safe. And as long as you only touch artifacts while wearing these…” She held up her hands, which were in purple Warehouse safety gloves. "Nothing bad can happen anyway." That said, she went to open one of the boxes. As soon as the lid slid off the box, tiny sparkling lights in all kinds of colors started to float out of it and danced around the gate and control room.

Everyone started to look around in awe. Some ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaahs’ could be heard.

“Wow,” Zoe exclaimed and touched one of the sparkling light dots, which made it fly away from her and break into a dozen more sparkles that looked like a shooting star.

“Told you,” Claudia exclaimed proudly and pulled the Swiss Miss Mug out of another box. Shaking it she made the blizzard-like flurry of marshmallow-y snow flakes fly out of it and rain down on Zoe. “Come on, taste it,” she quickly said and caught some flakes in her own mouth.

Zoe followed Claudia’s example. “Mmmh,” she mumbled. “Tastes like marshmallows!”

Claudia grinned.

“Veronica is going to love this,” Dean mused, deciding that maybe they could use a few artifact-y Christmas decorations after all. Besides, Willow would be able to make sure this was all safe.

“What is going on down there?” General Jack O’Neill called, stepping out of his office and looking down into the gate room, which was full of colorful _sparkles_.

“Just sharing some Christmas spirit, General,” Claudia called.

“We authorised this with Agent Lange,” Jack Carter stated. 

“Hetty authorised flying and dancing sparkles in the gate room?” O’Neill wanted to know.

“Er, well… she said it was okay to decorate it a little,” Carter answered.

“A little,” O’Neill replied. “Why do I have the feeling that your definition of _a little_ is very different from my own?”

“Nah, we’ll keep it to a minimum,” Claudia promised. “Warehouse-style minimum,” she added silently.

O’Neill chuckled. “As long as all of this is safe…” he gestured around.

“Perfectly safe,” Claudia assured him, then noticed out of the corner of her eye that Zoe was pulling a mistletoe out of a box. Her eyes widened. She turned slightly to her friend and shook her head, then quickly made a ‘cut it’ gesture.

“Everything’s perfectly safe?” O’Neill questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“Of course, General,” Claudia said with a fake grin as soon as Zoe put the mistletoe down.

“Alright, I trust you’ll keep an eye on things, Carter, seeing as you’re one of the heads of security,” O’Neill called.

“Sure thing,” Jack Carter answered with a smile that he hoped looked reassuring.

“Okay… carry on.” That said, General O’Neill went back into his office, shaking his head slightly in amusement.

Jack Carter turned to Claudia as soon as the General turned his back.

“What’s that mistletoe do?” he asked through gritted teeth, already expecting the worst.

“Calm down, it’s just a mistletoe,” Claudia said. “Granted, it’s the original, and it's effect is very strong, but a kiss never harmed anyone, did it?”

“It makes you kiss someone when you stand under it?” Dean asked.

“Yeah,” Claudia replied. “ _Duh._ ”

“No matter if you want to?” Jack asked.

“Yeah,” Claudia admitted. “So we better not hang it in the gate room. Might get a little awkward, especially with all those stupid military regs.”

Dean snorted. “Agreed.” Next to him Willow laughed slightly and started to look through Claudia’s boxes, hopefully to make sure they were all as harmless as Claudia claimed.

“So, what else you got in those boxes,” Faith asked, walking over to them from where she had been securing the tree with some marines and glancing at the mistletoe wistfully. Maybe she should hang it somewhere and make sure she and Riley ran into each other under it. No, she couldn’t do that, not after what she had done to him in the past. They had actually sort of become friends since they worked together. She couldn’t risk destroying the trust she had managed to carefully build up with him. It was still a tempting thought though. She simply couldn’t get him out of her mind, no matter how hard she tried. Going out with other random guys hadn’t helped either. Maybe she should try to make her dates less random. Someone she actually liked might be a better solution. Her gaze fell on Dean. She did like him, and he was rather hot. He was also a lot like her and they had fun together. Unfortunately he was very much in love with Veronica, even if he didn’t seem to want to admit it. Well, she couldn’t blame him. She liked Veronica, and they both deserved happiness. So, someone else… she’d simply have to find someone. The Christmas Eve party tomorrow surely would provide her with an opportunity. She smiled, already looking forward to it.

“A lot,” Claudia said grinning and started to hand out purple gloves. “Remember, only touch artifacts while wearing those. These artifacts are all pretty harmless, but better safe than sorry, right?”

“Right,” Dean muttered. With his luck, something would definitely go wrong if he touched an artifact unprotected, especially since his luck had been way too good lately. Something was bound to go wrong rather sooner than later.

“Got everything,” a new voice called suddenly. Dean turned around and saw Fargo rushing into the room, a vehicle with several boxes and machines following him.

Jack groaned when he saw the guy. Something was bound to go wrong now that _he_ was there. Fargo was a magnet for chaos, even if he wasn’t as bad as he used to be before timelines had been altered after their little time travel stunt.

“Awesome,” Claudia said grinning at Fargo. “Let’s get this party rolling.”


	2. Christmas Surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  **Title :** It’s Far From Over: Christmas Joy  
>  **Rating :** PG  
>  **Genre :** crossover, sci-fi, fantasy, romance, het  
>  **Fandoms :** SGA, **Supernatural** , **Veronica Mars** & Warehouse 13 (bold: actually have characters in the ficlet)  
>  **Characters :** Dean Winchester, Veronica Mars  
>  **Pairings :** Veronica/Dean  
>  **Word count :** ~ 2121  
>  **Summary :** Dean has a Christmas surprise for Veronica  
>  **Spoiler Warnings :** Supernatural up to the end of season 6 to be safe, only mild ones for Veronica Mars & SGA, Warehouse 13 season 1 Christmas episode  
>  **Other Warnings :** I’m German and my English isn’t and probably never will be perfect. I hope I don’t make too many mistakes. Feel free to point out errors so I can learn and improve.  
>  **Author Notes :** **This is the afore mentioned Veronica/Dean ficlet I wrote for landiana24 on lj. Hope you like it, dear. Thank you for all the betaing and Merry Christmas!**
> 
> Thank you to my friend needtakehave for betaing this. Any remaining mistakes are entirely my own. ;-)

**Atlantis:**

Veronica walked from the transporter to the gate room and sighed. She had known this was coming, had found out about Dean’s plans to surprise her for Christmas after he started acting suspiciously, but she still wasn’t in the mood for this. She had tried to get into the Christmas spirit for him, but Christmas was a holiday she had always spent with her father. Without him it just wouldn’t be the same, and it only reminded her even more that she might never see him again, because she was stuck in an alternate reality, while her dad was still back home. He was probably worried sick about her and might never find out what actually happened to her. She didn’t think he would be in a Christmas mood, so how could she be? She knew of course that her father wouldn’t want her to be sad and grumpy. He’d want her to live a happy life, no matter what, and on most days she kind of managed that. It wasn’t like she hated it here, especially because of Dean, who she really cared about. Still, it wasn’t home. Sighing once more she pushed those thoughts away when she noticed Dean standing just outside the gate room. Seeing his excited smile she placed a fake one on her own face and hoped to be able to convince him that she was surprised and happy about whatever he had done. He deserved some happiness after all. She probably didn’t even know half of what he had been through in his life, but she knew that he'd never had it easy. The least she could do was indulge him about his surprise for her.

“Hey,” Dean said when Veronica reached him and gave her a brief kiss, hoping that that would help her relax a little. She seemed rather tense and down, even though she smiled at him. The smile didn’t reached her eyes though, and Dean could tell that she only smiled for his sake. Hopefully his surprise would manage to cheer her up. 

“Hey yourself,” she answered, melting into him. He always seemed to have that effect on her. “So, why’d you ask me to meet you here?” she added, pretending not to have a clue what was going on.

Dean smirked slightly at her. “Thought you’d never ask. Close your eyes.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Just do it, please.”

Veronica sighed, but complied.

“No peaking!” he warned, then took her hand and started walking, pulling her with him.

“If you let me walk into anything, I swear you’ll regret it for the rest of your life!”

Dean chuckled, loving her spirit. Only Veronica could manage to sound threatening, cute and hot at the same time.

“Don’t worry, you can trust me.” He pulled her into the gate room, and turned her slightly so she would have a good view of the whole room.

“Alright, you can open your eyes.”

Veronica took in a deep breath and slowly opened her eyes, ready to fake surprise and put another fake smile on her face. However, as soon as she saw the room her eyes widened. She looked around in amazement.

“Wow,” she exclaimed, her eyes fixing on a million tiny sparkles that flew and danced around the whole room. Despite her mood a smile started to appear on her face, growing wider as she held out a hand and touched one of the sparkles. As soon as her finger hit it, the sparkle rushed off and seemed to divide itself into even more sparkles that shot through the air like a shooting star. Veronica let out a delighted squeal before looking around the room properly.

“Muhammad Ali’s Boxing Gloves,” Dean said in explanation and gestured up at the walkway leading to General O’Neill’s office, where they had hung the gloves. “Claudia brought them from the Warehouse. They make you see stars without hitting you.” He chuckled at the thought.

Veronica smirked, amused, then tore her eyes away from the gloves and the sparkles they caused to look at the other decorations. A huge Christmas tree stood beside the Stargate. It was decorated in all kinds of colors, with Christmas ornaments, tiny presents, angels with animated wings, stars, reindeers, tiny Santa Clauses that seemed to wave, and lots of other cute little things, most of them animated to some degree. It was also full of candles, which seemed to actually burn.

“The flames are just holograms,” Dean assured her. “So no worries, the tree won’t burn down accidentally.”

“Holograms?” Veronica asked incredulously.

“The candles were built in Eureka, which is also where the fake snow was made.”

“It doesn’t look fake,” Veronica stated while looking at the snow that was lying around the edges of the room and on the Stargate.

“Doesn’t feel fake either,” he assured her, took her hand and pulled her towards one of the fake snow hills. Once they arrived there he quickly made a snow ball, turned around and threw it at Veronica.

“Dean!” Veronica called, sounding outraged when it hit her neck. Then she touched her skin, where a few snow flakes were still lingering and her eyes widened. “It _does_ feel real!”

“It’s not though, came out of a machine, and Fargo assured us that it wouldn’t melt and set the room under water.”

“Neat,” Veronica said, stepped to Dean and lightly kissed him on the mouth while secretly grabbing a handful of the fake snow. Pulling away she grinned mischievously and rubbed it in his face. The look he gave her made Veronica laugh out loud.

“You’re going to regret that!” Dean threatened, then grabbed Veronica and, ignoring her squeals, threw her into the snow hill.

Veronica screamed slightly before starting to laugh as she grabbed snow and threw it at him.

They indulged in a bit of a snowball fight, but soon sat on the ground panting.

“Let’s make a snow angel,” Veronica said after a while.

Dean raised and eyebrow at her, but she took his hands and pulled him into the snow. 

“Just do what I do,” she told him, lying down, spreading out her arms and legs and moving them, starting to create the image of an angel underneath her.

“I know how to make a snow angel,” Dean assured her.

“Do you now?” Veronica asked. “Ever made one before? Cause I remember Sam telling me that you hated Christmas and everything associated with it, including snow.”

“Yeah, well, I guess I did. There just never seemed to be the right time to celebrate anything in my life before now,” he said while making his own snow angel next to Veronica.

Veronica glanced at Dean, her heart going out to him. She hated that his life had been like that. “You know, that’s kind of the point of Christmas. You _make_ time to celebrate and enjoy life. It’s kind of a reason to put all the crappy stuff that life throws at you on hold and just be happy to be alive, even if it’s only for a few hours,” she told him. At least that was how she liked to look at it, and it had always been nice to put her own life on hold for a while, which usually hadn’t been cheerful either.

“I like the way you see things,” Dean said with a smile.

Veronica grinned, then got up and held her hand out to Dean. Helping him up she glanced at the snow angels they had made. It kind of looked like they were holding hands. She liked that picture.

“I definitely prefer snow angels over the real deal,” Dean said, causing a laugh from Veronica.

“So, you like it?” he then asked glancing at her.

Veronica turned to the room at large and looked around again. Besides the tree and snow there were a lot of other decorations. Winter rose strings adorned railings and walls, ice crystals hung in several positions, as well as tiny bells and fir cones. There was so much that it was hard to take it all in at once.

“I love it,” Veronica said honestly. “It’s… _magical_.” She grinned. “Especially the sparkles.” 

She flicked one at Dean and laughed when he ducked the shooting star consisting of dozens of tiny sparkles that rushed directly towards his face. 

“I knew you were planning a Christmas surprise for me, but I never would have believed in a million years that it could be like this.”

“You _knew_ we were doing this as a surprise?” Dean asked, looking at Veronica stunned and a little crushed. He had gone through so much trouble after all. 

Veronica snorted slightly at the surprise in his voice. “Of course I knew. I’ve been solving cases and mysteries before I could even walk, and you, my friend have been acting very mysterious lately,” she said teasingly and used her index finger to poke him in the chest playfully.

Dean chuckled slightly. “Solving cases before you could walk, _seriously_?”

Veronica laughed. “I might have exaggerated a bit, but only a little, I swear.” She grinned at him, suddenly realizing that she felt no longer sad. She might not have wanted to celebrate Christmas this year, but she no longer felt that way. Seeing what Dean and the others had done had gotten her into a Christmas mood faster than she would have believed possible. And besides, she had just told Dean that Christmas was about letting go of the bad stuff for a while and just enjoying oneself. She’d be a hypocrite if she didn’t do it herself, right?

“So… friends…” Dean mumbled a little uncertainly. “… is that what we are?”

“What do you mean?” Veronica asked, surprised by the sudden change in topic.

“You called me ‘my friend’,” Dean clarified. “So, I was wondering, is that what we are, _friends_? With benefits?” he added, feeling a bit awkward and stupid. He probably shouldn’t have brought it up. There was no need to label what they had, was there? They were fine just the way they were. And if he had kept his mouth shut, he at least couldn’t have gotten an answer he didn’t like.

Veronica snorted once more. “I was actually hoping that we were a little more than that,” she answered. She knew of course, that Dean was quite the flirt and had heard enough stories from Sam and Bobby to know that Dean didn’t really do relationships, or at least hadn’t for a long time. Still, she had thought that for some reason this was different for him, that _she_ was different to him, and when she saw the surprise he arranged for her here she had felt affirmed in that. Was he trying to make sure that she didn’t read too much into his actions?

Hearing her words a smile appeared on Dean’s face, growing bigger by the second. “I was hoping that, too,” he admitted, then smirked cheekily. “Just had to make sure you felt the same way.”

Veronica couldn’t help but smile at that. “My, my, Dean Winchester… are you telling me that you actually want to be my _boyfriend_?” she asked teasingly.

“If that’s what you want to call it,” he answered. “Then yeah, sounds good to me.”

Veronica laughed before throwing her arms around him and pulling him towards her.

“Sounds good to me, too,” she said silently. “Very good actually.” That said she leaned in and kissed him.

Once she pulled away Dean leaned his head against hers, breathing heavily. “Was that a thank you… for this…” he gestured at the room.

“It was more a thank you for you being you. I haven’t gotten to the thanking you for saving this Christmas yet.”

Dean grinned. “Can’t wait to get to that part,” he told her. “And tomorrow you can thank me again once you see Vincent’s and the Hump Bar. We decorated those, too, for the big Christmas party.”

Veronica chuckled. “A Christmas party? Well, I guess I will have to wait and see how good it is to be able to judge properly what kind of thank you gift you should get. But seeing this…” She turned slightly and looked at the amazingly decorated room again. “…I’m guessing I will have to come up with something good.”

Dean smirked in a satisfied way, stepped behind Veronica and put his arms around her. Snuggling close to her he looked around the room as well. They really had done a great job. This was how Christmas was supposed to be, he decided.


End file.
